A mealybugs life...

Some of you may already know this but I love plants. I love mine so much that most have names and they get talked to in two languages. I adopt new ones as often as I can and have to be torn away from plant stores. Once when I was walking to the local pharmacy to cure a current sickness, I passed a man pushing his flower and plant cart. I resisted the temptation on the way but just couldn't help myself on the way back. The new addition was called Orphan Annie. No worries she has a home now. One of my first plants was Rosa (picture) and her sister Maria. There have been times in which my plants have died because of the heat of Guayaquil, and even the emergency treatment of being put into the fridge for the third time didn't help. Poor Meryl. Then there have been the plants that have died in my absence, I like to think that they missed me but I have a feeling that the soil got a little too dry. And there have been others that have succumbed to pests. One of these being, mealybugs. They are nasty little bugs covered in a white cottony substance and seem to multiply overnight. One of my plants, Aqua, was almost furry from the sheer abundance of mealybugs. I was sure that I was about to lose another plant when beholding the wonders of google, I found a solution that didn't involve chemicals. Dish soap and warm water. So I gave my plant a scrubbing like it has never known and now three days later it is relatively free of mealybugs. According to the instructions I will have to repeat the process in a week and then keep an eye out to see if they come back. I tell you this whole story to explain what I was thinking about. Our bad habits are a bit like mealybugs, better liked by some people than others but completely disastrous to all. I don't know about you, but I seem to have a lot of bad habits. Yes it should not surprise you to hear that a missionary has struggles too. Experiencing this situation with my plants made me realize that I tend to fall for the same patterns and listen to the same lies. I work through it with God and then for a while things are good but then I get distracted and busy not allowing God to examine me and wash off the lies. Then I turn into a fuzzy gross messy only realizing when it seem that I have caused damage what has happened. Then here comes the spray bottle and God helps me to clear out the lies again. The funny thing about mealybugs is that if you have a plant infested with these you must separate it from the others, especially the weak plants, because they will transfer and start to grow a colony there. We should be careful who we are around all the time because as much as we don't like to admit it, their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors begin to rub off on us. Now just as my plants do go moving themselves (yes that would be scary if it happened), we also should be careful about judging others, this is when we need to turn to the Gardener and let Him show us. Because how ironic would that be if we start pointing fingers at someone because they have mealybugs when you are covered with scales... Love others, clean your leaves, and listen to the Gardener.